Google: Glass Will Be Rx-able

By Eye² Staff

Google continues to generate massive publicity for its soon-to-be released
Google Glass, revealing new features of its eyeglass-like, Internet connected wearable computer bit by bit. The company has already shown how to record video, take photos or search the Web using voice commands. At the SXSW Interactive Festival earlier this month, Timothy Jordan, Google's senior developer advocate, demonstrated how to navigate the glasses and how apps like Gmail, the New York Times and Evernote work with it.

Most interesting for the optical industry was Google's announcement that there will be a prescription solution for Glass released in 2013. According to Google, the Glass design is modular, so wearers will be able to add frames and lenses that match their prescription, as opposed to having an actual prescription lens in the display.

"We understand how important this is and we've been working hard on it," Google said on its website. "We're still perfecting the design for prescription frames. Although the frames won't be ready for the Explorer Edition's release, hang in there—you can expect to see them later this year.

Google posted this photo of Greg Priest-Dorman, a member of the Glass team and an early pioneer in wearable computing, wearing one of Glass prototypes it is testing with prescription eyewear.